
Energy and Environment News
October 16, 2015
Top Stories
Climate Change. Ten of the world’s largest oil companies jointly supported the United Nations’ goals of limiting global warming today by acknowledging that their industry must help climate change. The public declaration was an effort to convince an increasingly skeptical world that energy companies are serious about delivering cleaner energy; however, its impact will be limited given that none of the biggest American companies participated and no specific commitments were made by the companies involved. NY Times
Oil Outlook. Oil services company Baker Hughes reported that U.S. energy companies have cut oil rigs this week for the seventh week in a row — the longest streak of reductions in nearly four months. This cutback brings the total number of U.S. oil and gas rigs to a fresh 13-year low, and suggests that U.S. production will decline between the second and fourth quarters of this year. Reuters
Climate Change. A recent Brookings Institute Policy Brief reports that climate change mitigation technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS) are likely to play a vital role in global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The authors assert that CCS is the only technology with the ability to achieve significant reductions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure, and argue that government policies and financial support are needed to ensure that CCS technologies are commercialized and deployed as quickly as possible. Brookings
Oil Outlook. Tim Treadgold of Forbes predicts that oil prices will eventually increase, but that the road to rebalancing requires patience. Although large producers are likely to continue cutting capital expenditures in the near term, oil should slowly recover given that low prices will both force high cost producers out of the market and encourage greater consumption. Forbes